Cain Smoking

This past weekend that commercial starring Herman Cain’s campaign manager imparting his take on Cain’s candidacy while smoking became a topic of interest, propelling his campaign into GOP contender status. With righteous indignation, CBS Sunday Face the Nation anchor Bob Schieffer scolded Cain “I don’t think it serves the country well — and this is an editorial opinion here — to be showing someone smoking a cigarette.” Tom Brokaw, on NBC’s meet the press, inarticulately ruminated on the controversy; “I think that maybe 9-9-9 stands for, ‘you get nine months to live with lung cancer, nine months to live with emphysema, nine months to live with coronary-artery disease.’ I can’t imagine why they thought that was an effective image,”

Smoking, whatever it is and whatever its ill effects, remains a completely legal, heavily regulated and inordinately taxed product. The President, up until recently, was a smoker, but as a democrat is considered a victim because of his own choice. Mark Block, Cain’s campaign manager, is a smoker and it is completely subjective as to whether or not him smoking in the ad glamorized the act. Both Schieffer and Brokaw work for large media conglomerates with entertainment divisions that produce hours of countless scenes per year including smokers, many produced in a way to enhance the stature of a character by that action. If Schieffer and Brokaw are so offended by smoking, a logical path could include agitating for tobacco to be banned and to openly protest their employers. Neither does either.

Instead, both infantilize a Presidential candidate because they disagree with that candidate’s political philosophy. They hide behind a socially acceptable monster that allows them to feign a contemplative opinion while their true aim is to demean Herman Cain. Yes, Shieffer has his own cancer history to fall back on, which makes it worse because he is using that personal history as another cudgel in an attack on Cain. Going out of proportion and making much out of little is just another illustration of liberal media bias.